Suppressing electromagnetic interference in direct current converters

Since James Clerk Maxwell established the electromagnetic field theory in 1865, multifarious electrical and electronic products have been invented, designed, produced, and widely deployed, such as wireless communication devices, electrical machines and motors. This has profoundly changed our world and our lives. Now we cannot live without electrical products anymore and, thus, we are surrounded with electromagnetic fields generated. On the other side, especially in the past few decades, the rapid development and wide deployment of electrical products have caused lots of troubles, among which the most prominent one is electromagnetic interference (EMI), which may impact other devices performance and harm human beings health. Therefore, fighting EMI has become a stringent, difficult problem faced by engineers and scientists. The sources of EMI include natural sources, like atmospheric charge/discharge phenomena and extraterrestrial radiation, and man-made sources, like power lines, auto ignition, radio frequency interference, and radiation hazards, to name just a few. As important components, direct current (DC-DC) converters are embedded and employed in various electrical devices, thus forming main sources of EMI. Some measures, such as filters and electromagnetic shielding, have been taken to suppress EMI, but these methods have various drawbacks with respect to cost, volume, weight, and efficiency. Therefore, new theories and methodologies are desired to cope with the EMI problem, and chaos theory is a candidate due to the continuous spectrum feature of chaos. This paper aims to provide an overview on the state of the art of traditional EMI suppression technologies, and to introduce the use of chaos theory and chaos control to reduce EMI, as well as to motivate more efforts in theoretical research and engineering practice. © 2009 IEEE.